Once viewed as a plaything of the wealthy and eccentric, the car is now an integral part of modern life. The Car takes us on a tour of the many roles that the automobile has played in its lifetime, and the many guise and different models in which it has appeared. Not just a book of glossy advertising shots, The Car is a social history of the impact that cars and driving have had on the world, and nowhere more so than in the United States: freeways, driveins, trucks and trailer parks all spring from the invention of the internal combustion engine.